04.24.13 A week of good byes and last things

This has been a week of saying goodbye and last things before we take to the road next week.

Last hair cut from my dear friend Christie Williamson who has cut my hair for many years. I plan on letting my hair grow long and letting the color grow out since I won’t have a wonderful hair stylist like Christie around on the road.

Last lunch and visit with my cherished sister Harriett. We don’t get to do that too often now but we always knew we could since we live about 30 minutes from each other. I love her so much and will miss her deeply.

Last appointment for Roy and I with our family doctor, Dr. Hugo Valdes, and we’re leaving knowing our health is in great condition and we’re good to roll.

Last weekend was our second to last Sunday at our church, Trinity Baptist Church, in Pumpkin Center, Louisiana. This has been our church for 25 plus years. A place where we have a wonderful church family who have supported us through tough times and celebrated with us in all our blessings. Our pastor, Dr. Randy Davis’ sermons are Heavenly inspired and speak to my heart and my conscience every week. Our choir is a group of Christian angels with a deep love for Christ and a desire to sing His praises. I sang with the choir for many years until my asthma just made it impossible to continue. I still know all the words to most of their specials and sing along with them (very quietly of course) each week. I can’t imagine finding a church more perfect for me in our travels.

Our last choir dramatic music will be presented this Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 7 pm at Trinity Baptist Church at 42062 Pumpkin Center Road. The adult choir, children’s choir and many dramatic actors will present the Resurrection and the Life. We presented this ten years ago when I was singing in the choir and it is one of the most moving depictions of Christ’s last days. Can’t wait to see this from the congregation and I’m so thankful we didn’t need to leave town before this. If you’re in the neighborhood and want a tremendous blessing in song and drama please come join us. You truly won’t believe that a church our size could put on such a wonderful production. This is certainly God’s doing!

My last hour at work is in 13.75 hours (who’s counting?!!!). I’ve said goodbye to a bunch of wonderful people around campus this week. A lot of them have kept up with our efforts to get to this point for the last several months by reading our blog so they weren’t surprised when I was able to finally turn in my resignation two weeks ago. Southeastern has wonderful employees who have had to double up on their workload due to the lay offs and cut backs these last four years. They’ve stuck with it and I admire their ability to do that.

I had my last lunch with “the girls” at work today when they took me to Trey Yuen. When Friday comes it will be extremely hard to say a real good bye to these ladies each of whom has affected my life in many wonderful ways over these last 15 years.

Had our last Papa John’s pizza last night. There are none where we’ll be living the next few months and as remote as we’ll be I doubt we’ll have any pizza delivered either! Tonight we had our last Albany Chicken Tenders. This has been our favorite place to buy the juiciest biggest chicken tenders around town. I’m planning on having Seafood stuffed potatoes from Chookies tomorrow evening for the last time. These last two are local places that we won’t find up north so might as well get them while we’re here.

Most important of all our last foods is our last boiled crawfish which we will eat this coming Sunday afternoon with our family. “If you haven’t had crawfish you haven’t lived,” says every true Cajun. We certainly won’t be having this Cajun delicacy up north so we’ve planned to have our last crawfish with our granddaughter Madisyn who discovered them last year and just loved them!

Told all of our neighbors good bye this week. Told precious Elizabeth Halpin goodbye – will miss her little visits and her gifts of food! This whole week seems to be a week of saying good bye and a week of lasts. A lot of other things have happened this week but for once I wanted to stick to one topic in my blog.

Next week we begin a lifetime of firsts! As sad as it is to say goodbye to so many wonderful people, we know that what lays ahead of us is so full of promise and opportunity! We give God all the glory for getting us here and allowing us to begin this amazing new life! I know he will be with us through the good and the bad in the days ahead.